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LAKE COUNTY EMBARRASSED BY ELECTION NIGHT: The nation watched Tuesday night as Lake County election officials held the fate of the Democratic presidential primary in their hands — and held it, and held it and held it (Times of Northwest Indiana). The delay provoked a broadside of allegations .jpg)
from national, state and local pundits of election trickery in a county infamous for vote fraud and political corruption. The firestorm continued into Wednesday — long after election tallies were finalized — with national news crews storming the Lake County Government Complex in Crown Point, demanding answers to the county’s delayed results. To one Lake County political leader, the county looked "stupid." "Lake County didn’t win last night," Lake County Surveyor George Van Til said. "We look stupid." He said this is not the first time the county has been late with election results. "The only problem is, this time the whole world was watching," he said. Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott, a Sen. Hillary Clinton supporter, complained live on CNN on Tuesday, "The appearance of impropriety is high" and demanded that Gary Mayor Rudy Clay, the county Democratic chairman and a Sen. Barack Obama supporter, "release the numbers." Clay responded, "There is no hanky-panky going on here in Lake County." But Clay conceded Wednesday improvement was needed. "We’re going to make some changes," he said. "We’ve got to do better. Things will be different in November (for the general election)." Clay did not elaborate on the changes.
POLL WORKER PROBED: A formal complaint has not been filed against a poll worker caught on camera Tuesday by a local television station saying "This is Obama’s house," said the Vanderburgh County clerk (Evansville Courier & Press). Susan Kirk said the incident will be reviewed by the Election Board at its next meeting in a few weeks. "A formal complaint has not been made, and that’s one reason that we’re deciding if we’ll put that on the agenda or not," she said. "FOX News brought it in. They didn’t complain, they just asked if that is appropriate and, of course, that’s not appropriate." WTVW-FOX7 filmed a poll worker engaging in a conversation with a man. It is unknown if he was a poll worker or a voter. The woman is shown saying to him, "This is Obama’s house."
CLINTON TOUTS WHITE SUPPORT: Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed Wednesday to continue her quest for the Democratic nomination, arguing she would be the stronger nominee because she appeals to a wider coalition of voters — including whites who have not supported Barack Obama in recent contests. "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me." "There’s a pattern emerging here," she said.
9TH CD CANDIDATE LEFT OFF BALLOT: The 9th District congressional candidate whose name inadvertently was left off the Bartholomew County ballot is considering whether to seek a special election to rectify the error (Columbus Republic). If approved, the election would be conducted at county expense. The Democratic candidate, John R. Bottorff of Jasper, would have to contest the omission with Indiana Recount Commission, said Dale Simmons, co-general counsel for the Secretary of State’s election division.
PETERSON TO TEACH AT BSU: Ball State University says former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson has accepted an appointment as a visiting professor of public policy (Associated Press). Peterson recently completed a fellowship at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. At Ball State, Peterson will lead a graduate course in metropolitan problems at the university’s Indianapolis Center this fall. He will also teach a class on community planning at the Muncie campus in spring 2009.
LEYVA TO CHALLENGE VISCLOSKY AGAIN: Mark Leyva said a torn retina left him half blind in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s primary, forcing him to shelve his campaigning (Times of Northwest Indiana). Republican voters in Northwest Indiana saw the light anyway, Leyva said, by giving him a fourth chance to unseat veteran U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind. "This has been a very special primary victory," Leyva said Wednesday, explaining that the blindness in one eye that left him bedridden for nearly two weeks now is subsiding. "I just want to thank God and all my voters and supporters who give us hope and opportunity to change leadership in November," Leyva said. Visclosky, a Merrillville Democrat first elected in 1984, has dispatched Leyva, a Highland carpenter, by more than 2-1 margins in each of their past three fall matchups. Visclosky drew no primary challenger.
LAKE COUNTY CLINTON BACKERS UPBEAT: Despite spending more time in more places in Lake County, the Hillary Clinton campaign lost the county next to Chicago by 13 percentage points to Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday. The message of "jobs, jobs, jobs" seemed to fare well enough outside Gary city limits, where Clinton roughly split the vote with her Illinois rival. But Mayor Rudy Clay delivered big margins for Obama within Gary, easily putting him over the top (Post-Tribune). Lake Station Mayor Keith Soderquist, a Clinton supporter, downplayed the countywide loss, saying, "A win’s a win. She didn’t carry the county, but she carried the state, and that’s what’s important."
OBAMA OUTSPENT CLINTON 2-1 IN LAKE: Barack Obama outspent Hillary Clinton by a 2-to-1 margin in television advertising in Northwest Indiana (Post-Tribune). Public records maintained by Comcast Cable, the sole cable provider for nearly all of Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties, show Obama spent $144,933 to air 6,284 ads in the three counties from March 31 to April 27. From April 8 to April 27, Clinton spent $68,190 to air 1,945 ads. The final tallies going into Tuesday’s vote were not yet official. Thanks in large part to the support of U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, often mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, Clinton won endorsements from a broad swath of Democratic elected officials, including the mayors of Hammond, Whiting, East Chicago and Hobart.
PORTER BALLOT SHORTAGES BAFFLING: The shortage of ballots in Porter County cost some Democrats from casting their ballots, both election officials and voters said (Post-Tribune). Officials say they won’t know how many precincts ran short of the Democratic ballots Tuesday until after an internal debriefing. That session will take place sometime within a week, when the remaining ballots, including provisional, have been counted.
HD19 RECOUNT POSSIBLE: District 19 Republican candidate Bill Johnson may seek a recount in Tuesday’s close primary race against Andrew Webster (Post-Tribune). Final counts, depending on where the numbers come from, put either a 24- or 25-vote difference between Johnson and Webster, who was declared the winner. "We’re working on trying to figure out if we are going to appeal," Johnson said Wednesday. "We’re trying to figure out the truth of the numbers." Porter County lists 184 votes for Johnson and 218 votes for Webster. Lake County registered 975 votes for Johnson and 966 for Webster. The totals, 1,159 for Johnson and 1,184 for Webster, differ from those posted on the state Web site, which put Johnson at 1,201 votes and Webster at 1,225.
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